we arrived on Friday afternoon after another bumpy bus ride but this time only 3 hours. Pat (our tour guide) was commended for her choice of hotel for us, this was a first. although when opening the curtains in our room to see out view over the river (we were at the river side hotel) we found a brick wall.
Considering Vientiane is the capital of Laos, we spent the majority of our time sitting in the lobby using the free wifi or eating. Our time was sometimes more productive as some of the staff were learning English so asked us for help. this really put our grammar to the test. English is actually quite dufficult! I don't think they were always convinced that we knew what we were on about!

this is the most expensive place that we have been, we knew this as soon as we arrived as they had table cloths as opposed to the plastic sheeting we'd come accustomed to!

Saturday night was by far the most entertaining, we did some googling to find a bar that would be playing the England Australia game. After reading about the highland bar we set out on a trek to find it. the pavement ran out but we carried on along the riverfront through what is best described as a dark construction site (don't panic mummies!!) to eventually find the lively bar. the bar was filled with a fair few ex-pats that were now living locally with their laos wives. some may have been for love...others not so sure!! There was an old bloke in there also that goes by the name on "condom" who told us to look out for his friend "bentshaft" whilst in New Zealand. quite the character!

Across the road from our hotel was the night market and an openair stage that had hideous performances every night. we think all the performers were tone def as they just warbled and clashed metal with no rhythm or structure.

Our journey to the train station was very traumatic and adrenalin fuelled!
As part of our package Pat included a free transfer to the station. we asked the receptionist what time this would be at, he said 4 o'clock. I told him it seemed a little early considering our train wasn't til 6.20. perhaps we could go at 5pm. the journey there is apparently half an hour. he says ok and we set out to kill some more time in this dull town! we found a nice restaurant (with free wifi of course) offering a set lunch menu of 3 courses and coffee for 49000 kip (3.80). amazing, we think. out of our usual budget but we might aswell use up the remainder of our kip as we have nothing else to pay for.
at 4.30 we head back to the hotel, stopping on the way to get some snacks for the train. at 4.50 we arrive back in the hotel lobby. the receptionist runs in behind us telling us he's been looking for us for half an hour, our transfer car has already left. eh? he also informs at this point that we should have gone at 4pm like he suggested so we had time to get our visa's and go through border control. cheers Einstein, could have told us that this morning!! after alot of flapping he puts us in a Tuk Tuk (that we now have to pay for) for the half hour journey, stopping on the way for us to get more cash out and get fuel. this is the first rush we've had since we left heathrow! We eventually arrive, get our visas and have our passports checked. after parting with more petty cash we're through to the other side. the following conversation goes abit like this:

excuse me, which way to the platform? we're going to Bangkok.

bus?

no, train.

train?

yes, train to Bangkok.

no train.

what? no train. where are we.

bus. train. train. bus.

pardon? where are we now? what is this place?

yes.

no. where are we? train station.

grace: 'if we are at the bus station I'm going to go f**king mad!'

train station? noooo, half an hour.

half an hour? what? our train leaves in 20 minutes. are we at the bus station?€~*+!|%€!¥+%~_,%>!!!!!!!!

oooo you want train. no, no train here.

(all men gasp and look horrified. giving us that 'oh you're not going to make that train' look. helpful.)

taxi, you want taxi?

yes, how much? GO GO GO.

80,000 kip

yep, whatever, get us on that train please!

(we're driving behind a bus. grace is literally screaming in his ear, OVER TAKE. GO ROUND. CAN U GO FASTER. accompanied by some crazy arm actions. I'm sat next to her sounding more and more like mother, no grace, it's better to get there late than not at all!
he pulls the car over)

80 baht

s***, we have no baht.

(thankfully I remember the 100 baht I'd stashed away in my bag. more border checks. once done the driver starts walking back to the car.)

NO, RUN. COME ON. GO GO GO.

(he plays ball and runs with us! we continue cussing and swearing in the back of the car. 5 minutes later we he stops the car again. )

what, where are we now?

Train station.

that wasn't half an hour! (he was probably wondering why we were screaming in his ear the whole time to go faster. perhaps he thought we were adrenalin junkies...
Grace hands over 90,000 kip [MEGA rip off for length of journey.not amused] and asks for the 10 change.

no kip.

brilliant. just keep it.

(he's already robbed, why stop now!)

We find the train and our seats...and sit and wait for the train to leave. exhausting!!